Acoustic means for sound-producing devices



April 15 1924. 1,490,170

| J. GRUBMAN cousue ar-:Ans Fon sounn rnonucme nvrcEs original Find Nov. 1s, 1922 Patented Apr. 15, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.A

LEO J. GRUBMAN, F NEW YORK, N. Y.

ASSIGNOR T0 GRUBMANN ENGINEERING @a MANUFACTURING coilrnNY, or NEW Yoax, N. Y., A CORPORATION oF NEW Yonx.

ACOUSTIC MEANS FOR SOUND-PRODUCING DEVICES.

Original application illed November 18, 1922, Serial No. 601,725. Divided and this application led January 23, 1924.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that L'Lno J. GRUBMAN, a citizen of the United States and a resident of the city, county, and tats of'NeW York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Acoustic Means for Sound-Producing Devices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an acoustic means for sound producing devices and has for its primary object to provide a simple and effective means for improving the acoustic properties of such devices-which have become known in the art as voices l5 and are intended for use in connection with dolls or other toys for the purpose of simulating a characteristic cry.

The subject matter ofthe present application is a division of my prior applical0 tion for patent filed November 18, 1922, Serial No. 601,725. As disclosed nlsaid prior ap lication, 4I provide a casing or housing or the sound producing and emitting' mechanism and within 4one end thereof there is arranged a wall or partition which provides a sound receiving and modifying chamber of Vfixed or constant dimensions within which the vemitted sounds are received in the movement of the air eX- pelling member, said sounds being -deflected and vdirected by said chamber wall through the perforated head on one end of the casing. Thus in the emission of sounds simulating the pronunciation of the infant cry ma-ma, since the sound impinges upon only one directing wall or surface throughout theV movement of the Sound emission controlling member, the same audible eifect in the sounding of each syllable will be produced when the sounds are finally emitted through the perforated end wall of the casing.`

Inmy present application I disclosev several yalternative embodiments of the sound deilecting Iand directing means illustrated and described in my prior patent application. these y constructions resides 1in the --provision of the sound producing and emitting means' which consists of two parts, one slidable relative to the other and a sound detiecting and directing wallbearing a definite constant relation to the point of sound emis- The essential feature of each of' Serial No. 687,917.

sion and providing a sound receiving Aand modlfyin chamber of fixed dimensions. Thus during the bemission of the sound, the sound waves impln e only upon said chamber wall by which t ey are deflected and directed from said chamber.

It'is a urther Vgeneral object of my in ventlon to provide an acoustic Vmeans for sound producing devices of the above'character which is simple in its construction, reliable and effective for thev purpose in v1ew and will not materially add to the production cost of such devices.

With the above and other objects in view, the invention consists in the combination, construction and relative arrangement of the several parts as will be hereinafter more fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawing and subsequently incorporated in the subjoined claims.

In the drawing wherein VI have illustrated several simple and satisfactory. embodiments of the invention and in which similar referencev characters designate corresponding` parts throughout the several views:

igure, 1 is a vertical sectional view of a sound producing device provided with c-ne embodiment of my present improvement and corresponding to that shown inv my prior patent application above identified;

Figure 2 is a similar view of the device with the present improvement' omitted therefrom toillustrate the difference in the detlection of the emitted sounds during the gieovement of the slidable air expelling mem- Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 1, illustrating a slightly dilerent construction; and

Figures 4 and 5 are sectional views showing other alternative embodiments of the invention.

Referring first toIiiguref 1 of the drawing which illustrates a construction corresponding to that disclosed in my prior application, the several parts of the sound producing and emission controlling means as well as the sound modifying or acoustic means which constitutes the particular subject matter ofthe present application are enclosed within a shell or casing 5 of suitable dimensions and may be constructed of heavy cardboard or other suitable material. Preferably, though not necessarily, this shell or casing is of cylindrical form and one end thereof is provided with an air tight closure in the form of a metal plate or cap 6 which may be applied to the end of the casing wall and permanently fixed thereon in any approved manner. This. end plate or cap also securely clamps and. fixes one end of the V4tubular flexible bellows wall 7 in connection with the wall of the rasing 5, the other end of said. ilexible bellows wall having its edge secured upon the marginal edge of a movable head or air expelling member 8 by any suitable means whereby an air tight seal between said flexible wall and the movable head is effected.

Upon the other end of the casing or shell 5 the sheet metal end plate or cap 9 is secured, the marginal portion 10 of said end plate being offset. Between the end edge of the casing wall and this annular offset portion 10 of the end plate, the annular flange v11 formed upon the edge of the concavo-convex wall 12 is positioned. This wall extends within the shell or casing 5, the concave side thereof being opposed to the plate 9 and is centrally provided with anvopening 13 the purpose of which will present y appear.

Each of the end plates 6 and 9 is centrally formed with a seat or depression 14 to receive one end of a tubular ost 15. This post adjacent one of its en s is provided with the orifice 16 affording communication between the bellows chamber and the interior of said post. Adjacent to this orifice the sound producing reed 17 is suitabl mounted within said post.

The member 8 is centrally formed with a tubular extension or sleeve 18 having slidable engagement with the post 15, end said sleeve in one side'thereof is provided with a circumferentially extendin slot or opening 19. 'Ihe wall of the tubu ar post 15 adjacent to the outer concave surface of the sound deflectin wall 12 is also provided with a circum erentially extending lsound emission slot 20 therein with which the slot or opening 19in the sleeve 18 is adapted to register. In addition to the slot 2() the wall of the tubular post 15 adjacent to the end plate'9 of the casing is rovided with a small orifice 21 through which nasal sounds are emitted.

It will be Seen from the above that the space between the concave side of the wall 12 and the end plate 9 provides a sound 'receiving and directing chamber into which the sounds are emitted during the sliding movement of the air expelling member 8. The tubular extension or sleeve 18 of this member moves freely through the central opening 13 in said wall. The end plate 9 on the casing is provided with a plurality of final sound emission openings 22 through which the sound waves are directed by the wall 12 externally of the shell or casing 5. I have referred to the sound deflecting wall 12 as being of ooncavo-convex shape or form, but it will be manifest that this particular form is not absolutely essential, the only material consideration being that such wall shall bear a constant definite relation to the sound emission slot or orifice'20 between said oint of sound emission and the movable ead 8 so that the sounds are received within a chamber of fixed dimensions and will always impinge upon a single-deflecting and directing surface. This may be better understood from reference to Figure 2 of the drawings wherein I have shown such a sound producing device with the wall 12 omitted. Thus at one point in the movement of the head 8 as shown in full lines, the sound waves issuing from the emission slot 20 will first impinge u on the end face of the bellows head 8 by w ich they are deflected against the wall of the casing 5 which finally directs the sounds outwardl through the openings in the end plate of the casin Thus sound waves following this course wi l produce, a certain audible effect upon the ear. lVhen, however, the bellows head 8 is nearing the end of its air expelling movement and approaches the osition seen in dotted lines 'in Figure y2, t e sound waves will follow a different course and asl indicated by the dotted lines, will first strike the inner surface ofthe casing wall at one-side thereof and then -be deflected against the surface of the bellows head and tliendeflected upwardly and against the o posite side of the casing wall and then finally outwardly through the o enings in the end.

plate of the casing. bviously, therefore, the sounds finally emitted in the latter ortion of the travel of the movable bel owsV head will have a different-pitch or audible effect upon the ear fromthose which were emitted during the initial part of the travel of the bellows head. Accordingly, the two syllables of the word'ma-ma will not be sounded alike but the first syllablewill be ma, while the second syllable will 'sound more like me or mi.

The objectionable feature of such a device as shown in Figure 2, I have Suoceededinline position shown in Fig. 1 to expel air from the bellows chamber through the reed 17, the small orifice 21 is first uncovered by the sleeve 18 so that the sound will issue through this orifice in small volume in simulation of the letter ln. In the con tinued gravity movement of the bellows head, the opening 19 in said sleeve registers with the opening 20, the emitted sounds simulatingI the letter a and thus sounding the syllable ma. The sound waves passing laterally throu h theregisteri slots 18 and 20 will foliwing substantial the course indicated by the dotted line in igure L and impinge at spaced points on the concave surface of the wall 12 and be finall directed by said wall outwardly througi the openings 22 in the end plate of the casing. As the head 8 continues its movement, the end portion of the sleeve moves over and closes the slot 20 so that the letter m is again sounded by the emission of sound through the orifice 22 until the end of said sleeve passes below the slot 20 when there will occur a final prolonged sounding of the letter a until the bellows head 8 comes to a position of rest, thus completing the sounding of the second syllable ma. will, of course, be understood that such control and emission of the sounds simulating the two s llables takes place in rapid succession. owever, it wil be apparent that by reason of the provision of the sound deflecting and directing wall 12, these two word syllables will be phonetically identical, there being no audible difference in the sound of the final letter of the second syllable from the corresponding letter of the first word s 'llable In tie construction shown in Figure l of the drawings, owing to the fixed position of the wall 12 with respect to the casing and the sound emission control means, the casing 5 must be of somewhat greater length than in certain cases might be found desirable. Therefore, in Figure 3 of the drawing, I have shown a slightly modified form in which the sound deflecting and directing wall 12 is not fixedly clamped and secured at. its upper edge against the casing wall 5. In this instance, the end plate .9"has a relatively wideV mar inal Hange 10 suitably clinched at its e ge upon the casing wall. The edge of the concave-convex wall 12 has a narrow outwardly7 turned fiange l1 thereon which is adapted to abut against the end edge of the casing wall and limit the inward movement of the Wall 12.` It will be seen that in this case the inner part of the wall 12 rests upon the movable bel lowshead 8 in the initial movement of the 'latter1 during which movement said head 8 and the wall 12 move together during the sounding of the letter m and until the flange 11' contacts against the end edge of the casing wall. The bellows head 8 then continues its independent gravity movement and immediately after the wall 12 reaches the position seen in dotted lines, the opening 19 comes into registration with the slot 20. thus emitting sound through the latter slot simulating the leter a, as above explained. Therefore.r it will be seen that in this instance also, during the emission of sound waves through the slot 20, the wall 1.2' bears a constant definite relation to the point of sound emission and is interposed between said point and the moving bellows head so that the sound waves may not impinge upon said bellows head and be deflected thereby in the manner indicated in Figure 2 of the drawing.

In Figure 4 of the drawing I have illustrated another type of such sound producing devices wherein a fixed axially extending post 15 of solid construction is positioned between the casing heads and the movable bellows head 8 is not provided with the tubular extension or sleeve. In this case the solid post 15 is formed with spaced circumfercntially extending channels or sound passages 20 and the sound producing reed 17 is mounted in an opening provided in the bellows head 8.

In this modified construction, the sound deflect-ting and `recting wall 12a is carried by themovable bellows head and for the purpose of facilitating the assemblage ot' the parts. I provide this wall of cylindrical form having at one of its ends a lateral fiange extension 23 which is adapted to be engaged over the end edge of the tubular bellows wall to frictionally clamp and hold the same upon the marginal edge of the head 8'. At the juncture of the flange 23 with the cylindrical sound directing wall` said flange is provided with an angular offset portion 24 affording a recess or a rabbet to receive a disc 25 having a central opening 26 coaxially related with the o lning in the head 8 which receives the Xed post 15. This opening 26 is the point of sound emission and instead of being stationa as in the constructions above describe is movable with the bellows head. The cylindrical wall 12 is of such length that the sound waves emitted through the opening 26 will impinge against the inner surface of said wall and will not pm through the open end thereof and firstV strike the side wall of the casing. As indicated by the broken lines, any sound waves which do pass directly from the opening 26 through the open end of the cylindrical wall 25, would be emitted through the openings in the end plate of the casing without first impinging against the side wall thereof. Thus in this case likewise, it will be seen that I provide a sound re ceiving chamber of fixed dimensions and a sound dellecting and directing wail which bears a constant relation to the point of sound emission during the gravity movement of the bellows head.

In Figure 5 of the drawing I have illustrated a slightly different form of the sound deflecting and directing member shown in Figure 4 and in which this wall., carried by the movable bellows head, is of dished concavo-convex form as indicated at 12" and has a central reversely curved or inwardly pressed portion 12 provided with the central opening 12 through which the sounds are emitted. Thus the portion 12 of said wall forms a sound receiving chamber open at its outer side, and the sound waves emitted through the opening 12 as it successfully registers with the sound assages or channels in the fixed post 15 will impinge against this inwardly curved section 12c of the wall and be directed thereby through the openings in the end plate of the casing.

From the foregoing description considered in connection with the accompanyinfr drawing, the construction and manner o? operation of the several illustrated embodiments of the device will be full understood. It will be appreciated that by arrangin the sound deflecting and directing wall as s iown in Figure 3, or as in Figures 4 and 5, the entire mechanism may be completely enclosed and housed within a casing or shell of minimum length. Various other constructions may also suggest themselves from the several forms herein illustrated whereby this desired result can be obtained. It will be understood therefore that the present invention is not to be limited to any particular form or shape of the sound delectng and directing Wall or the mounting and arrangement thereof within the shell or casing, and I believe that I am the first in the art to provide a device of this character wherein both the sound producing and emission control means and the acoustic means, whereby the enunciation of the word syllables .is perfected, are entirely enclosed and housed within a shell or casing. Accordingly, it is to be understood that though I have herein disclosed several practical and desirable embodiments of my present improvements, the subject matter thereof might also be exemplified in numerous other alternative constructions and I accordingly reserve the privilege of resorting to all such ligitimate 4changes in the form, proportion and relative arrangement of the several parts as may be fairly embodied within the spirit and scope of the invention as claimed.

I claim:

1. In a sound producing device, a casing open at one end to permit the emission of sound therethrough, a sound producin and controlling means enclosed within sai casing including a part having a sound emission opening and a sounding reed, an air compression chamber within the casin having a stationary head and a head movab e by gravity between the open end of said casing and the stationary head of the air compression chamber, and operating to force air through said sounding reed, and means for deflecting and directing the emitted sound through the open end of said casing.

2. In a sound producing device, a casin open at one end to permit the emission o sound therethrough, a sound producing and controlling means within said casing including a sound box having a sound emission opening in its wall, a sounding reed, an air compression chamber within said casing having a stationary head and a head movable betw'en the open end of the casing and said stationary head for expelling air under pressure through said reed and the sound box, and a sound deflectin and directin wall within said casing bearing a constant efinite relation to said opening during the emission of sound therethrough.

3. In combination with a casing havi sound emission openings in one end wal thereof and sound producing and controlling means enclosed within said casing for interruptedly emitting sound within the casing, said means including a movable part; a. sound deflecting and directing wall also enclosed within said casing extending between, the point of sound emission and the apertured end wall of the casing and interposed between said end wall and the movable part of said sound producing means to provide al sound emission receiving chamber of fixed dimensions, said wall directing the emitted sounds through the apertures in the casing wall to the external atmosphere.

4. In combination with sound producing and emitting means including a bellows having a movable head and a part having a sound emission o ening and with which a part of said bellbws head is slidably engaged to control the emission of sound from said opening; a sound deflecting and directing wall bearing a constant definite relation to said opening in the emission of sound therethrough in the sliding movement of said bellows head and forming a sound receiving and directing chamber of fixed dimensions, said chamber being open at one of its ends through which the sounds are finallv deflected by said wall.

5. In combination with sound producing and emitting means including a bellows having a tubular flexible wall and a movable head closing one end of said tubular wall, a fixed part with which a part of said bellows head coacts to control the emission of sound; a sound delecting and directing wall having a part concentrically disposed with relation to said fixed part and providing a. sound receiving and directing chamber of fixed dimensions', :nid wall also having an annular marginal portion adapted for frictional clamping engagement over thoend edge ot' the tnhnlzxr bellows wall to secure the same to said movable head, said first named part ot' eaid wall deiiecting andi directing'the emitted soumis from one end of said chamber.

G. ln combination with a casing havingr openings in an end wall thereof. Sound prodiiciirer and emitting means enclosed within said casing and including coacting xed and relatively movable parts for interrnptedly controlling the emission of sound into said easing; means carried by said movable part for deflecting and directing the emitted sounds and consisting of a Wall concentrically related to said fixed part and providing a chamber of fixed dimensions having an open end opposed to the openings in the end Wall of the casing and through which the emitted sounds are finally directed by said chamber wall.

T. In combination with a casing havinJr openings in an end wall thereof and soun producingA and controllingr means enclosed within said easing including a bellows havin;r a liexiiile tubular wall and a. movable head closing; one end ofthe bellows chamber; leonnd deducting and directing means con- Sietink;r of a wall disposed in concentric relation to the bellows head on one side thereof and providing an open ended chamber to receive the emitted sounds` said wall being provided with means at one oi itsl ends for frictional clampingr engagement umn the end edge of the tnlnxlar bellows wall to secure the latter to said movable head and the wall of said chamber deflecting and directingr the emitted sounds from the open end of said chamber through the openings in the end wall of the casing.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as mylinvention, I have signed my name hereto.

LEO J. GRU'BMAN. 

